Balderdash: A Pheo/Saha project

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

Why? Were you going for a Mother 3 feel or reference?

[pheonix561 2080]

No, but you looked at the design and thought "Pig mask." Which is basically what that design is. I know nothing about mother 3, but I know that if you can identify that at a glance, then I must have done something right. It doesn't matter if you compared it to another video game character or not. I don't mind having that relation.

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

Well yeah I mean it's obviously a pig. Can't argue with that. :>

[T1g 1503]

[pheonix561 2080]

Also: I decided the enemy army is gonna be horses. Mustangs, Broncos, Clydesdales, the woiks. I decided that today, while i was out at dinner. Between when I posted that big long thing about the CO of the pigs when I wasn't sure what I wanted and just now when I learned thats exactly what I want, you have watched me make a decision in real time. There's too many options and tie-ins for symbolism and shit like that. If you haven't guessed by now, (and how could you, I've barely told you anything), this game is going to be loaded to the brim with symbolism and puns. The two are very closely related.

I feel like I should mention briefly the animals I've decided on for the Balders so far. I'll worry about explaining their roles later, but to be honest I'd like to see if any of you can guess what their rolls would be before I go into it. There's the Elephants, the Cheetahs, the Moths, the Salmon, the Dogs(maybe), and the the Beavers, not counting the pigs. I'm probably leaving some out(Edit: Alligators. Sniper units). I could definitely use more animals, and I'm always open to hearing suggestions from you guys. Rika is responsible for cheetahs being on this list. It was her suggestion. She gets credit for it. Take pride, Rika.

On an unrelated note, oh man, you guys. You don't even know. You don't even know.

The Salmon.......!

The salmon take to war like I take to laser tag. Nuff sed. I don't even need a long entry. Salmon. Done.

If I had the time to sit and explain everything holy balls would I ever, but these stupid finals keep getting all up in my grill.

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

The salmon take to war like I take to laser tag. Nuff sed. I don't even need a long entry. Salmon. Done.

Uh.... what an esoteric statement. How DO you take to laser tag? Seriously or like you are supposed to, you know for fun?

[Kaffles 17]

Uh.... what an esoteric statement. How DO you take to laser tag? Seriously or like you are supposed to, you know for fun?

Run around like a crazy bear screaming "GAY BAR GAY BAR GAY BAR GAYYYYYY BAAAARRRRR"

[pheonix561 2080]

I once gave a small group of cheerleaders a panic attack. People run in fear of me during these games. I was dragon shouting before Dovahkin. I am dragonborn.

On that note I'm obviously going to find a way to sneak the lonely dragon in on this shit. He'll be an unstoppable invincible dreadnaught unit only playable by investing one thousand hours of gameplay. I know I said no dragons. But this is the exception to that rule.

[Teto 2609]

Or he can be DLC

He asks to be your friend. If you say yes, he's really clingy and needy and annoying

If you say no, he cries and attacks you

[Teto 2609]

Katamari on the Wings for the theme song. But pigs.

[T1g 1503]

Or he can be DLC

He asks to be your friend. If you say yes, he's really clingy and needy and annoying

If you say no, he cries and attacks you

the game turns into a romantic comedy where the entire time is spent making sure he doesnt eat you

[pheonix561 2080]

I noticed this resemblance to Red, too, and I am okay with this. If we're still making comparisons, look up Gwendolyn of Odinsphere, and draw your parallels. To be honest, if there's going to be any way that I'm worried about accidentally plagiarizing anything, it's her design. I've never played Odinsphere, but I have a digital copy of the art book. It's got some of the best character design you've ever seen. Gwendolyn included, she's one of my all time favorite character designs. Here, look at this and decide for yourself.

One of my all time favorite character designs. I'd love to put this much detail and character and life into any one of my designs if I could. This is my challenge, as a designer for this game!

Man, I haven't even really posted anything about the main character yet, have I? I honestly keep forgetting you guys don't telepathically know these things. JEEZ. Here, let me paraphrase a bunch of stuff Sahaqiel and I discussed. I don't have a fancy character sheet or anything, but here's some pictures from my sketchbook. Only pay any attention to the page on the left. Ignore the chest plate stuff. Also, that small helmet you're seeing in the bottom right of the helmet page is an early thumbnail for Pig Lady. I was thinking about plumes and pigtails, and thought It would be nice to put both of those on a helmet together. The star shaped visor came from the fact that she would need to be able to push her visor up and not run into the pigtails at the same time. Eventually I scrapped the pigtails and turned the visor into the entire helmet, but I still want to use the pigtails again somewhere. But I digress. Ladies and Gentlemen, Rushmore's Prison Helmet:

Also, I'm going to post this other picture I did. I'll start talking about it later, but right now I'm going to talk about the helmet. It's one of the most critical parts of his design, and the suit he wears throughout much of the game.

Bear in mind, much of this second picture is dated, very much so. But, Helmets!

When I showed Sahaqiel this helmet, he expressed concern for the fact that it's so solid and bulky, and the fact that I chose a plate mesh visor over a glass or plexiglass half visor you typically see sitting over a pilot's face. I can understand why someone would want to design a pilot character with a helmet like that, and in most other cases, that's exactly what I'd do. Just wait till I start posting other characters, It'll come up. But first, understand that a glass visor is waaaaaaay too easy, and over used in many games. If I gave him a half face visor he looks like every space marine ever, unless you're thinking WarHammer. If I make the visor take up his whole face, he's cobra commander. If I give him a glass visor with a metal bar holding it in at the bottom, he's master chief. An Iron mesh visor is just not used that often, in these situations. There will be points in the game where even he will be wearing a glass visor, like in the very first level before he's thrown into prison. But I know I'm better than that. giving him that visor would make him generic. But I also have more reasons than just that to work with. See, the knights all have some nice armor, right? Jet suits and stuff, ranging from light exo skeletons to full on Jets they are basically just carrying on their backs(Salmon, squid Yeah). It's all very expensive and high tech stuff. But Rush is in Balder prison, so he doesn't get that luxury. He gets cheap armor that is probably more dangerous for him to wear than going out on the battlefield naked is. His armor is big, and bulky, and cheap to reproduce. Instead of giving him a visor, they just cast some iron and put holes in it for him to see through. I think the visor will make a very nice juxtaposition between the typical fighter helmet and this helmet design. They're shaped the same and their visors work the same. Just watching him operate each helmet with the same familiarity will help the player understand that this is just a more solid version of his helmet. But that's not the only reason the visor works.

If you've noticed, and hopefully you already have, the helmet strongly resembles a jousting helmet. That's good that you noticed, because it's supposed to! I want Rush to be the unspoken knight in (un)shining armor for this game, and this will help communicate that. It's not that he's the only one with this kind of knight's helmet, though. In fact, most if not all of the prisoners are given armor like this. None of them will be wearing animal armor of any kind. But it won't be armor just like Rush's. His prison mates wear knight armor too, but it's different armor. I want it to feel like they're wearing whatever random assortment of spare parts they were given. So he's not the only knight. But he's the only knight you play as throughout the game. And your cell mates aren't gonna be there through every level. But that's not where the resemblances end!

Did you, by any chance, see any implication of a face in the visor? The twin rectangles on his head, maybe the visor as a jaw? If you did, good! That was intentional! If you didn't, squid! It will probably be more apparent when he's sitting with his cellmates anyways. But yeah, Rush's helmet is supposed to resemble a face. Think of the face as a caricature of someone who has a small forehead, squinty eyes, and a big iron jaw. None of these are Rush's facial features. In fact, he's almost the opposite of that. But being in his situation, it wouldn't be hard to imagine him as someone who would have them. He doesn't even see through the eyes on the helmet, he sees through the mouth! His cellmates have things like that too, and I like to think they're pretty clever. But I'll post those later. Just know that Rush's helmet is both a knight, a face, and cheap/bulky, much like the rest of his suit.

Maybe you think giving him a big ol' iron jaw implies he needs to be ridiculously masculine, and that I said I didn't want to do stuff like that. That's true, I wanted to specifically show people my characters were mothersquiders, not just to make them look like mothersquiders and let the player draw his conclusions. So why the masculine helmet? Well, same reason the pig lady is sexy. Because this is the first game I've ever designed and the world I'm marketing it to doesn't know my reputation for making incredible video games, I've got to make some compromises in design. To quote a message from myself to Saha, I said "In the future, we can do games where you play as a fat, short, sweaty man with buck teeth and a heart of gold, and a cool 'stache. But right now, the main character cannot be any higher or lower than a solid 7/10." I'd like to make a game that designs itself for itself in the future, but right now there's just some rules I have to obey. I'll break them later, after this game wins game of the year.

I should probably also explain why the Balders have a prison. What sense does that make for mercenaries, right? Why are the prisoners not only kept at all, but also given weapons and told to fight? The prison corpse probably isn't as big as I'm making it sound, but it's where they send all the POW's(who usually don't fight, trust me), and all the mercenaries they hire themselves who try to leave before their contracts are up, and guys like Rush who are committed to the Balders but do bad things, like what Rush did in the first level. There's probably other reasons for them to have a prison that I just haven't thought of, so. But why are all the prisoners wearing face/knight helmets instead of animal things? Because if they're not fighting for the Balders, then what are they fighting for? Identity crisis! Symbolism! Plot! All that wonderful stuff I'm trying super duper hard to goose step around because I don't want to ruin the plot for any of you, Much less have this posted online anywhere in case this game gets big and people come look at this thread to see my discussion of the game. If you think the symbolism stops there you are DEAD WRONG. Gosh I'm so clever, cramming all these puns into everything.

I forgot to mention, the helmet design up there is still a little dated. Sahaqiel pointed out the antennae are probably too thin, and should be thick and plastic or something. I originally made them thin and wirey like that because I wanted to emphasize the fact that they're wearing military hardware. But when I redrew him with thicker antennae, I actually liked the design more. They go very nicely with his gauntlets, which I'll explain later. Also, I might give him a microphone that wraps around from his ear to his mouth so he can talk to his cellmates while they're on the battlefield.

I want to take this opportunity to remind you I am always, always eager to hear your suggestions for the game. Who knows, I'll probably end up doing it, too! Rika, of all people, already made her imprint with the cheetahs. In fact, the cheetahs are led by Rush's older brother, the head of the army! So now she gets to brag about that, that her animal is the elite of the army, because I wasn't sure of what animal to make him wear until she suggested cheetah. And if it weren't for her suggestion, I probably would have chosen eagles or something. Suggest things to me, guys!

Sahaqiel also voiced concern over Rush's design. He said he thought the knight/pilot ratio was more 2:1 as it stood. I don't blame him for thinking that, particularly because he was looking at a dated design. Here's another, still dated but much less so design I posted in the Talk thread a month ago. His head is not pictured. Spoiler he's headless.

This picture also displays my need to learn how cloth works and folds and textures, but that's a technical skill thing I'm working on. My illustration teacher recommended a book for me to read, and I'll do that. He's a cool guy. I like my illustration teacher.

Like I said, his suit is bulky and cheap and probably going to explode if he ever tries to use it. It doesn't, but it could. It's also not that suit design you see up there where it takes up his whole abdomen. How the squid would he run in that? No, Rush's Chest plate for his armor stops just wear his ribs stop, so he can still run around and twist his spine and kick shit. It's also just enough room to carry the Buzz Lightyearesque deploying wings on his back, and the cannon that propels him, which I will explain later as a gameplay mechanic as well as a design. The chest thing is bulky, about as bulky as his helmet. I think it gives him a very interesting shape. With all this bulk and the way the wings are shaped and place on his back, he's less like a fighter jet and more like one of those WWII flying fortresses. All the fight of a flying fortress and all the speed of a jet. That's the Elephant way! Hey look I just made a terrible motto for his army while I was writing. I'll fix that later. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" Takes a whole new meaning when both your army is made up of animals and you can literally float and also fly. Just look at his chest plate as further development of his unspoken knight status, and another way to make him bulky and functional.

His Gauntlets haven't changed much, aside from the chains being circular now instead of square like I originally thought them to be. They're a lot like Link's gauntlets in skyward sword. They take up about half of his fore arm and end just before his wrist, so he can still more his hand with some freedom. The gloves are leather or something, who cares. If you're wondering why he has those chains there, he's a prisoner, remember? They're remotely activated and deactivated. The prisoners have no control over them. So they could be on the battlefield when the prison warden sees they're doing something he doesn't like, so he activates them and suddenly the prisoner is having that much more trouble staying alive. The gauntlets dont link to each other. They're electromagnetically attracted to some little half chainlinks on the back of his chest plate, so his arms get thrown behind him when he does something like that. But, while I was writing that sentence, a thought occured to me! What if, instead of handcuff gauntlets, the entire suit was electromagnetically attracted to itself at the push of a button, so his arms just suddenly threw themselves onto his chest along with his helmet? Oh man, that would be a great way to deter a dude. Decisions in real time! Maybe I'll do just that.

You know the spikes on the gauntlets? Those are there for a couple different reasons. Sahaqiel picked up on two out of three of them, and the third one was one I'd have to explain no matter what, so I felt pretty confident with myself when that happened . See for one, Rush holds his arms out to his side when he flies, with the wings there as well. He doesn't fly like its a jet pack. He flies like he literally is the plane. Those spikes help stream the air or whatever the squid they do. I see them on planes. Sorcery is probably involved somewhere down the line. They're also for close quarters combat. Instead of like altair's hidden blade that can stab someone with a punch, Rush gets to crush them with a pound. There will be boss fights when you crush someone with a pound like that. There will be boss fights when you pound on someones brain with those spikes until they submit and stop breathing bullets at you the same way a dragon breathes fire. Oh my god you do not even know how excited I am to introduce that character to you. There is a man who BREATHES. BULLETS. YOU POUND ON HIS BRAIN WITH YOUR SPIKES AND IT JUST MAKES HIM ANGRY. But that's a post for another day. The third use for the gauntlets actually ties into his cannon jetpack. When you're on the ground and you're running, you have the option to switch your jetpack from jet mode to cannon mode. Which is to say, that long tube on his back is normally facing behind him spewing out a steady stream of jet stuff, but when you're on the ground you can turn it in front of yourself and shoot shells at people. You also have the option, at any time while you're on the ground, to stop running entirely, get down on all fours like an artillery dude, and just squid the shit out of anyone on screen. You drive your gauntlets into the ground so you can control yourself while you do this. You are suddenly anti air and anti vehicle and stuff. This also means you have to stop running entirely, so you have to take the time to get a running start and get back into the air. I doubt this will be used terribly often when you're playing on a track level running in a set direction, but I think it will be used a little more when you're in arena mode. In starfox terms, you wouldn't do it so often on levels like corneria, but you totally would on levels like Fichina. I'm not about to go into gameplay mechanics. This is all about Rush's design right now. I also just realized I have no idea how he takes his gauntlets off. I'll figure something out. Maybe he just slides them off. Sure! Done.

All I've been mentioning so far is just bulky stuff, so I'm not really helping the argument that a 2:1 knight:pilot ratio is a steep comparison, so I want to talk about the undersuit thing. I like to think it's one of the biggest "I'm supposed to be a pilot" communicators on him. It really is basically just the same thing fighter pilots wear when they get in their cockpits. It's also what he wears while he's in prison, so it's also a prison suit. Maybe you think its silly to consider this suit a juxtaposition between the two, but bear in mind one popular choice I could always go with an typically do for the other designs is to give them a skintight thing. Rush does not get a skintight thing. He is a convict. He gets the loose fitting convict garb, which may or may not have a collar. I haven't decided yet. I considered making it an orange suit to help explain that, but I didn't because his armor is navy blue, and that orange/blue combination is too easy. Instead, his undersuit is a sort of a tan kind of thing. Like the colour of my sketchbook. Other undersuits for other convicts will either be that colour, or blue, or red, due to the fact that those are the army's colours.

The boots are easy enough to understand, and they're not the big bulky iron ones in the first sketch(How would he run in those?). They're the most recent sketch renditions, made of rubber. They're fire retardant, so they dont melt when that jet stream is spewing out behind him. They're also black. I don't really have much to add to the boots. I like their shape. I also might give Rush knee pads, but I also might not give him knee pads. Just some thoughts.

So when it all comes down to it, Rush is a knight, a convict, a pilot, and a face, all balled into one character design. Is that a bit much for one character, especially at low polycount? Perhaps. Can I pull it off? You bet your face I can!

Man I just spent an hour and a half typing all that. Someone open up Microsoft word and copy paste all that text, and put it in size twelve font with double spacing, and tell me how many pages it comes out to. I would do it but mac. Also, ask me anything about anything. Literally anything about this game. I will try my damndest to answer your question. Also suggest things! Always suggest things! LL was like "Oh man I think suggesting things might be rude maybe I shouldn't do it." NO. SUGGEST THINGS. THIS GAME WILL NOT GET BETTER IF YOU DON'T SUGGEST THINGS.

[Sahaqiel 1232]

I once gave a small group of cheerleaders a panic attack. People run in fear of me during these games. I was dragon shouting before Dovahkin. I am dragonborn.

On that note I'm obviously going to find a way to sneak the lonely dragon in on this shit. He'll be an unstoppable invincible dreadnaught unit only playable by investing one thousand hours of gameplay. I know I said no dragons. But this is the exception to that rule.

Except I TOTALLY DID IT BEFORE YOU!!!

I actually lead people into battle in laser tag occasionally, with my organizing shouts. :3

now I am a lone wolf

the bedwrecker

who shouts 9 year old cries that strike fear into the hearts of men

so pheo get dat modeling tutorial

I want you to make sure over the summer that we spend a lot of time in close quarters actively working on improving our abilities on things so we can both not slack off all summer. Honestly I wanted to take leaps at a time, making a personal game for every step I take into new directions, and they've each had a mFufni's Adventure for them lol.

Learned to program variables and text-related: mFufni's Adventure (~5min gameplay; text-based RPG)

Learned to program real time input, sound, and displays with ASCII sprites: mFufni's Adventure: The Sequel, Rather (~1hr+ gameplay; full on RPG)

Learning to program 2D sprites, sound, etc.: mFufni's Adventure 3 (working title, in progress; platformer)

Learn to program with three dimensional graphics: Balderdash, mFufni's 4

Learn to program online capabilities: mFufni's 5

???: mFufni's (the reboot without a number and less words in the title)

I'm really enthusiastic about finishing my own project, because I've already planned out a large amount of what's going to be in mFufni's 3, and I still haven't dipped my toes into three dimensional programming at all. So if we want to put something together it'd be preferable that we spend some time together working on things. I've worked/am working leading/cooperating in a design based team, and I think we could definitely get some stuff done in a lot of areas and throw something together that can get us some recognition.

even if it's just in the indie crowd

Apparently employers love pet projects like this, so it'll be good for us.

Also, I want to point out that in low poly, a collar would be kind of difficult.

Sahaqiel

[pheonix561 2080]

I'm going to get on irc in half an hour so we can talk, if I'm lucky enough to get a connection tonight. But if we're going to be studying in close quarters, we've got to be somewhere that isn't my house. My house is a stressful environment, especially when everyone is there, so that's going to be a challenge unless we stay in the basement or something. I've been watching videos like these, just to get an idea of what can be done with low poly animation to keep it looking acceptable. I doubt I'll give anyone animated hands or anything, I'll probably just keep everyone in a fist all the time. Wrists for certain, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ZeDRxYTnU

Also, I want to point out that in low poly, a collar would be kind of difficult.

Sahaqiel

I KNOW THAT. GUH.

[T1g 1503]